Margaret Armstrong: The Nature of Books, a proposed exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art & the inspiration for "Wild Women."
Margaret Neilson Armstrong is known for being the most prolific and perhaps well-known designer of American publishers’ bindings. Her designs have been exhibited in libraries all over the U.S.. She was, however, more than a binding designer; she was also an illustrator, a botanical artist, an explorer and specimen collector, an editor, poet, successful biography author, and a murder mystery novelist. These other aspects of her life have not been exhibited alongside her binding designs.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is distinct in its collection of her work; in addition to her book covers, the museum holds the single copy of her illustrated album of botanical watercolors that she created on a Western expedition of the United States. The museum is thus in a position to display the various facets of her artistic life and to place her within the context of the art world instead of keeping her solely in the realm of libraries.
Images above are courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art & the New York Botanical Garden